TCI Vaccine uptake soars and approaches 20,000; 56% with first shots says Ministry of Health

#TurksandCaicos, May 12, 2021 – The Ministry of Health and Human Services is pleased to update the general public that as of May 9 2021, a total of 19,515 persons in the TCI have received their first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.  This represents roughly 56 per cent of the adult population and marks a tremendous milestone of the ongoing vaccination campaign which commenced in January 2021. Additionally, 42 per cent of the adult population or 14,803 persons are now fully vaccinated having received both vaccines.

The Ministry of Health and Human Services would like to encourage unvaccinated persons to strongly consider taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine on offer in the TCI, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, is 95 per cent effective and is safe.

The number of active COVID-19 cases locally peaked to over 600 in February and has consistently declined since including the number of COVID-19 related admissions to the hospital.

The TCIs 28 positivity rate is now 2.7 per cent when considering PCR tests only. It is 2.3 per cent when considering both PCR and antigen tests. This is the lowest positivity rate the TCI has recorded for a 28-day period since early December. This gives supportive evidence of the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign considering the country has remained open since July 2020. In order to build on this progress as well as the continued reopening of the TCIs economy, continued support of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign is needed.

In commenting on these achievements, the Hon Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Human Services stated the following; “I would like to congratulate my team within the Ministry of Health on getting the 28-day positivity rate down below 3 per cent. This is an amazing achievement and milestone. Combined with achieving 56 per cent uptake of the vaccine (albeit for the first dose), 42 per cent fully vaccinated, and the increased rate of uptake which will allow us to get a 4th batch of the vaccine this is a great achievement. With the continued support of the general public, we can look forward to continuing to build on these achievements so that the TCI can begin to return to normal.”

The general public is encouraged to contact their health care provider for vaccination appointments and/or access the vaccination through community events by the Primary Health Care Department which is available at no cost to all residents.